Levamisole testing kits on the way

The Stranger just published an interesting, in-depth look at how the relatively recent practice of cutting cocaine with levamisole might have evovled:

[A] 1998 study at Vanderbilt University showed that levamisole eased withdrawal symptoms in mice addicted to morphine. That study caught the attention of Dr. Mike Clark, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harborview Medical Center, who also studies cocaine addiction in lab mice. "According to the study, levamisole acts on all three monoamine neurotransmitters," he says. "That's exactly what you'd expect from something that potentiates cocaine." In other words, levamisole may heighten cocaine's effects -- or might be a stimulant all by itself. In the next few weeks, Dr. Clark will begin an experiment of his own to find out (among other things) whether levamisole, without any cocaine, can produce cocainelike effects in lab mice.

If he can demonstrate that levamisole makes cocaine more potent, we'll be a step closer to understanding what it's doing in the supply chain. Other people have other theories, including:

• Something about the chemical structure of levamisole retains the iridescent fish-scale sheen of pure cocaine, giving cocaine cut with levamisole the same appearance as pure cocaine.


• Levamisole is a bulking agent for crack. The process of making crack involves "washing" cocaine and filtering out impurities and cutting agents. Levamisole slips through this process, meaning you can produce more volume of crack with less pure cocaine.


• Levamisole passes the "bleach test," a simple street test used to detect impurities in cocaine. When dropped in Clorox, pure cocaine dissolves clearly. Procaine (a common cutting agent) turns reddish brown, lidocaine turns yellowish, and other impurities float to the bottom. In a lab test conducted by Dr. Clark, levamisole stayed clean and clear.

Of course, levamisole is responsible for a host of nasty potential side effects, as the article details. But in Seattle, at least, we may soon have a testing kit:

One thing that can be done: develop an inexpensive field-test kit to try to detect levamisole. Dr. Clark has invented such a kit and -- in association with The Stranger, a few folks in the local harm-reduction community, and the People's Harm Reduction Alliance (PHRA), which runs the U-District needle exchange -- hopes to begin distributing kits in a few weeks.... The kits will contain instructions for use, a fact sheet about levamisole and agranulocytosis, and a survey on a prestamped postcard about where and when the cocaine was purchased, whether it's powder or rock cocaine, whether it tested positive for levamisole, and a few other research questions. Hopefully, that data will help us -- me, Dr. Clark, PHRA, and a local harm-reduction organization called DanceSafe -- develop a better understanding of how levamisole-tainted cocaine is distributed through the city and whether some neighborhoods face greater health risks than others. (Is the cocaine you can buy on the street in Georgetown, for example, more or less tainted than the cocaine at some millionaire's house party in Bellevue?)